Expect nothing but A’s for the C’s

Disappointment is directly proportional to expectation. If you expect a fabulously wonderful and expensive present for your birthday, and you get a $20 gift card to Jiffy Lube, you’re going to be very disappointed. But if you didn’t expect anything at all, you might be psyched about a free lube job.

Here in New England, it’s gotten to the point where we expect the local teams to win, and when they don’t, it’s more disappointing than if they were overachieving underdogs. This includes the Red Sox, Patriots and now the Celtics.

Start with the Sox. They were the best team in baseball all of last year. They led wire to wire, won the AL East and swept the Angels. And once they came back to beat the Indians, they were huge favorites to win it all. If they hadn’t? Boy, what a disappointment that would have been.

Next, the Patriots. They were the best team in the NFL all year. They were great, and so were the expectations. So when they lost the Super Bowl? Boy, what a disappointment that was. You’ve got people who still haven’t gotten over it. You think those people would have been as devastated if the Patriots hadn’t won Super Bowl XXXVI against the Rams? No way. The “happy to be there” theme would have brought tremendous solace. There was plenty of hope back then, but very little was expected of that team.

Now, the Celtics. They’ve been the best team in the NBA all year, and it’s changed the expectations. Before opening night, you might have expected this new conglomeration of players to make the playoffs. After they got started with 20 wins in their first 22 games, you might have expected them to earn a high seed in the playoffs. When they beat Detroit earlier this month, you probably expected them to win the Eastern Conference. And when they blew threw Texas and improved to 23-4 against the West, it was time to expect the Celtics to win the NBA title.

Forget what you thought in October. Forget that this team only won 24 games last year. When the Celtics finish the year with the best record in the NBA, when they finish with as many wins as the 1985-86 Celtics, when they head into the playoffs as the favorites, you should expect them to win it all. Therefore, there should be in Patriot-like disappointment if they don’t. You should feel even more crestfallen than you did the night Grady Little left Pedro in Game 7, because this time your expectations will be higher.

But I think many of you are protecting yourselves from disappointment, because your expectations for the Celtics aren’t high enough. You think the Celtics could win the title. I’m telling you they should. And I’ll be extremely disappointed if they don’t.

Bob Halloran is a sports anchor and reporter. He’s also the author of “Irish Thunder: The Hard Life and Times of Micky Ward,” published by The Lyons Press.